William Little, an organic chemist at UNC-Chapel Hill who was instrumental in both the founding and the maturation of Research Triangle Park, died Friday evening. He was 79.

Little was most famous for his job as a “traveling salesman” for RTP in the days after then-Gov. Luther Hodges and others had decided to build a research park that could take advantage of the talent and resources available at Triangle universities. He brought one of RTP’s first companies, a chemical maker known as Chemstrand, to the park in October 1959.

Along with others, Little also was key in the formation of RTI International, the nonprofit research organization that served as the anchor for Research Triangle Park in the 1950s and early ’60s. Today, RTI remains a local powerhouse with $710 million in revenue and 2,800 employees around the world working on everything from the reconstruction of Iraq to chemical research.

Little served for years as chair of RTI’s executive committee, remaining a board member until his death. He also was a member of the board of the Research Triangle Foundation, the group responsible for overseeing RTP.

A native of Hickory, Little was one of nine children. He earned bachelor’s degrees from Lenoir Rhyne College, later followed by master’s and doctoral degrees from UNC, and was given a position in UNC’s chemistry department in 1956.

Shortly thereafter, Little got wrapped up in what was then a fledgling effort to build a business park smack in the heart of the Triangle. Business and educational leaders thought the region could use the research prowess at its universities – Duke, N.C. State and UNC – to diversify what was then still an Old South economy based on textiles, tobacco and furniture.

It became Little’s job to convince executives of top chemical companies that what was then a vast mass of undeveloped swampland could, in fact, prove to be a hotbed for technological innovation.

That job wasn’t always easy, as Little said in a 1999 Triangle Business Journal story.

“There was an impression that the South was backward and that the economy here meant low wages,” Little said at the time.

But in 1959, Little was able to land a commitment from Chemstrand, a manufacturer of synthetic fibers, after company officials visited Chapel Hill to recruit chemistry students. Chemstrand bought 100 acres inside RTP and began work on a laboratory.

It was slow going in the park after that. Many manufacturers were hesistant to set up shop in RTP. But the early success of Chemstrand and RTI eventually led to the park’s big breakthrough: the announcement, in the mid-1960s, that IBM would build a facility here.

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